GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Status Report #055: SAS/Archive information

[Michael Arida <arida@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

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Contents:  1) SAS V5.3.0
           2) XMM-Newton archive open for business

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1) SAS V5.3.0 - http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm_sw_cal/sas_frame.shtml

The SOC released SAS V5.3.0 on Monday, 15 April.  V5.3.0 has
significant improvements over V5.2, and we recommend updating your
systems as soon as possible.  Accompanying the update of SAS are
updated calibration files in the CCF.  It is our opinion that it is
definitely worth while to reprocess existing data sets with the new
versions.  Fortunately, due to improved code efficiency this is not a
particularly onerous task.  Rerunning the emchain and epchain
pipelines on an linux box (single CPU 800 MHz Pentium III with 1GB
RAM) took only two hours and 35 minutes.  On a more antiquated Sun
Solaris Ultra 2 it took five and a half hours.

The GOF is releasing an updated version of the XMM-Newton data analysis
"ABC Guide" to go along with the release of SAS V5.3.0.

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/xmmhp_analysis.html

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2) The XMM-Newton science archive - http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/xsa/

The XMM-Newton Science Archive was opened for business on 15 April
2002.  Access to the archive is through the Vilspa SOC.  The archive
contains information on all observations (Calibration/Performance
Verification, Science Validation, Guest Observer and Guaranteed Time),
including the public date for the data.  Data sets which are still
proprietary are password secured.

All this information, but not the GO/GTO data, are also available via
Browse at:

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/w3table.pl?Observatory=XMM-NEWTON&Action=Advanced+Search

in the table: XMM-Newton Observation Log (xmmlog)

All the public Cal/PV and SV data can be retrieved via the browse
table: XMM-Newton U.S. Public Archive (xmmpublic)

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